30 Aug 09 Freelance Writing Checklist Part -3

In the last two articles of the series, I shared things that you need to do to prepare yourself for the freelance writing career. In this article, I will tell you what you should do once your résumé is in place, you have written a good cover letter, and you have built your portfolio.

How much do you deserve?

This is going to be tricky. You have two big giants to tackle: The pay rate in the niche you have chosen to write and the amount paid to new writers like you. For this, you will have to do some research. Ask as many people as you want to ask, and go through as many project postings as you can and see the bid people have made there. This will give you an idea about how much your niche pays.

Visit freelance forums and blogs

Freelance forums and blogs are the goldmines of resources. Hence, you should consider being regular on one or more freelance forums and blogs.

What are the best practices?

Not knowing the best practices of the industry and not applying it are two different things. You should research and find out not only the rates, but the prevailing best practices of the industry as well. You also need to know the payment terms used by the genuine employers.

Find Jobs

This is what you were preparing for all along. Visit different blogs, freelance exchange websites and get yourself registered, if asked to, and start applying for the jobs that interest you.

Fill in all the details in the form, when registering into freelance exchanges. I would recommend uploading your image as well, and not any avatar or any funny picture. You should look professional, in the photograph. I prefer it this way because a photograph tells the prospective clients about you, and on the Internet, everyone prefers doing business with an idiot whom they know then any undercover genius about whom the clients have no clue.

Research your clients

To safeguard your interest, you need to do some research on the clients before you accept the job proposal sent to you. Not every client is created equal. Some are crooks as well.

Read, Read and Read

It comes at the end of everything, isn’t it? That is why it is important. You will have to read as much as you can: read about freelancing tips, read some authors from your field, read how things are changing, etc.

This brings us to the end of the Freelance Writing Checklist series. I wrote three articles in this series, links to which are provided below:

Freelance Writing Checklist part -1

Freelance Writing Checklist part -2

Freelance Writing Checklist part -3

Hope you liked the series, your views and reviews are welcome. You can either use the comment box to share or view or you can mail me on bikramksingh [at] gmail [dot] com. waiting to hear from you.

Tags: Avatar, Best Practices, Blogs, Cli, Clue, Cover Letter, Doing Business, Exchange Websites, Forums, Freelance Writing Career, Giants, Goldmines, Job, Niche, Photograph, Project Postings, Proposal, Prospective Clients, Two Different Things, Undercover Genius

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24 May 09 Anatomy of a Persuasive Letter

As the name suggest, a persuasive letter is written with an intention to move the recipient in the certain direction. Writing and winning the reader can be both easy and difficult depending upon the nature of the letter, and the mood of the recipient. If the recipient is in positive frame of mind, and is likely to accept the proposal then even a weak logic and not-so-strong persuasive letter will be effective, but if the recipient is not likely to accept your proposal then it will need some convincing before the recipient agrees to the proposal. Writing this kind of persuasive letter takes some research and effort.

There is a certain structure you need to follow in order to build a strong argument that in turn will win over the recipient. Before discussing the structure of a persuasive letter, let’s first talk about the research objective. The following list will tell you what all you need to know before you can begin writing a persuasive letter.

Define the target audience
Purpose of writing a persuasive letter.
Make a list of information you want to include in the letter
Make a list of supportive arguments. The arguments will show the reader what is in there for him.
Make a list of possible objections, or mental block that might be pushing the reader to decide against your proposal.
Is there something peculiar about the problem you are going to address? Make a list of it.

Anatomy of a persuasive letter

Introduction: Introduce your product, services and request in this first paragraph. Outline the important changes in this new version.

Outline the benefits: The introduction paragraph should be followed by the paragraph that will talk about the benefit of the product, services and request you are making. In this paragraph write statements that will build case for you.

Call for action: Once the recipient knows about the benefit he will have by accepting your proposal, you need to tell him what you want from him, and what action he should take to help you.

Thanks: Thank your reader for the time he has devoted in reading the letter. Also include a conclusion in this final paragraph. The conclusion should be as forward thinking as it can be.

Tags: Address List, Anatomy, Benefit, Frame Of Mind, Intention, Introduction Paragraph, Logic, Nature, Objections, Paragraph Outline, Proposal, Recipient, Research Objective, Target Audience, Version Outline, Writing A Persuasive Letter

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30 Aug 09 Freelance Writing Checklist Part -3

How much do you deserve?

Visit freelance forums and blogs

What are the best practices?

Find Jobs

Research your clients

Read, Read and Read

24 May 09 Anatomy of a Persuasive Letter

Anatomy of a persuasive letter

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